Apex court holds Kingfisher plea infructuous

New Delhi: Supreme Court Tuesday declined to hear Kingfisher Airlines’s plea that the United Bank of India should not have declared it a wilful defaulter without hearing its case.

An apex court bench headed by Justice Anil R. Dave said the petition had become infructuous as the state-run bank had already declared the airline a wilful defaulter.

The order can be challenged before the Calcutta High Court, the Supreme Court said.

Appearing for Kingfisher Airlines, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the apex court that they were intimated about the bank’s grievance panel meeting Friday and were given just 72 hours to appear before it.

He said the next two days being Saturday and Sunday, nothing could have been done.

Describing everything as pre-planned, Singhvi said the grievance panel meeting started at 10.30 a.m. Monday and ended by 11.30 a.m. By that time it was all over in the media that Kingfisher Airlines has been declared a wilful defaulter.

He said that being declared a wilful defaulter would slam all the doors for getting loans for the business activities.